Old Navy Mixes Up Chiefs, Texans & Oilers

I have a vintage style Kansas City Chiefs shirt I got from Old Navy a couple of years ago. My fiance has one too. They are cool looking, featuring a giant, faded Chiefs arrowhead on them. In big letters, the shirt says “Kansas Football.”

I noted at the time that it was curious that it said Kansas and not Missouri, given that the Chiefs are located in the “Show Me State.”

Still, I didn’t trouble myself over it. After all, Lamar Hunt always said that he viewed the Chiefs as mid-America’s team. There are surely just as many Chiefs fans in Kansas as there are in Missouri. Besides, the shirt was ten bucks.

Well, it looks as if Old Navy is screwing up some more shirts kind of sort of involving the Chiefs but this time their bungle (no offense Cincinnati) is somewhat greater.

Check out the shirt above. Even a novice football fan should see immediately that something is wrong. The Houston Texans won the 1961 AFC Championship? Would have been tough.

Here are all the things that are wrong with this shirt:

1. In 1961, the Houston Texans did not exist.

2. In 1961, there was a team called the Texans, only they played in Dallas and they went 6-8 that season. That team later became the Kansas City Chiefs.

3. In 1961 there was a team in Houston but they were called the Oilers.

4. In 1961, there was no such thing as an AFC. The NFL and AFL had not merged yet.

5. In 1961, the Houston Oilers won the AFL title.

6. The Houston Oilers later became the Tennessee Titans.

Apparently the folks at Old Navy blamed a third party that they get their shirts through for this fiasco. They have also reportedly removed the shirts.

Here is their statement:

“The NFL clothing sold in our Old Navy stores is created by a third party sports licensing company,” Edie Kissko, a spokesperson for Gap Inc., , said in a statement published by ESPN. “It is our intention to always provide the best merchandise to our customers and NFL fans. We apologize for this error and are removing the T-shirts.”

As the kids say, “epic fail,” Old Navy.